Editorial

2

IN 1953, President Eisenhowerdelivered a speech warning of

the growing intensity of theCold War. He empha sised thecontrast with just eight yearspreviously when Soviet andAmerican troops were overjoyedto meet and join hands at theRiver Elbe in Germany,signifying the end of the SecondWorld War.

One imagines what he wouldsay today, as Western politicalleaders hype up a ‘Russianthreat’ to justify increasedmilitary spending including theexpansion of nuclear weaponsprogrammes. And this at acrucial time for internationaldisarmament efforts.

At the end of April thenuclear Non ProliferationTreaty (NPT) Review

No to new arms race

Conference will begin at theUnited Nations in New York.Anti nuclear campaigners aremobilising for a number ofevents to demand that thenuclear weapons states take theirNPT commitment to disarmseriously.

Closer to home there’s ageneral election. Although theConservatives, Labour and LibDems are formally in favour ofmaintaining nuclear weapons invarious forms, there aredissenting voices within all threeparties. There was widespreadmedia coverage of the CNDsurvey of parliamentarycandidates, when it emerged that75% of Labour candidates whoresponded were opposed toreplacing Trident. We needmore information about thecandidates standing in yourconstituencies and morelobbying the MPs elected in

Dave Webb, CND Chair

this election will take the finaldecision on whether we goahead with new nukes. Helpmake this a Scrap Tridentelection!

CND has plenty of otheractions going on ahead of theelection to ensure that as manyMPs as possible that are electedare anti Trident please jointhem if you can (see pages threeand four for more information).Our next big event is a partyand protest demonstrationoutside the Ministry of Defenceon 13th April (the Global Dayof Action on Military Spending),held in solidarity with ablockade of Faslane that day.Come along, write to your localcandidates or arrange a hustingsevent there’s plenty to do!

President Eisenhower’swords ring true across thedecades he said in that same1953 speech, ‘Under the cloudof threatening war, it ishumanity hanging from a crossof iron.’ We must do all we canto prevent a new nuclear armsrace and a new Cold War andthe immense suffering whichwould accompany it.

We have learned fromhistory and we refuse torepeat it.

‘Under the cloudof threatening

war, it ishumanity

hanging from across of iron’.

President Eisenhower, 1953

Opinions expressed by authors in Campaign are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of CND.

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IN December 2006, the Blairgovernment introduced aWhite Paper, committing tosupport the replacement of

Britain’s Trident nuclearweapons system. In March2007, despite significantbackbench opposition,parliament voted to begin thatprocess with the first phasebeing concept and design forreplacing the four nuclearweapons carrying submarines.

We’ve been in that phasesince 2007, knowing thateventually a further decisionwill take place whether or notto actually start building thesubs. During these years theworld has been turned almostupside down.

We’ve had the globalfinancial crisis of 2008 andalthough Britain has by nomeans been the hardest hit, wecontinue to experience a periodof very sharp austerity policies.Unpleasant though this hasbeen, it has certainly sharpenedpublic awareness of what our

government spends money on and this has put Trident

replacement under scrutinyfrom a cost point of view.

These years since 2007 havealso made many people thinkabout what threatens oursafety and security. The mainchallenges are understood tobe terrorism and climatechange. Neither have beenadequately addressed over thisperiod and people increasinglysee nuclear weapons assomething from the past,which do not address theproblems that face us today.

Not even the pro nuclearlobby jumping on thebandwagon of the ‘Russiathreat’ cuts much ice because itis obvious that it’s actuallyaggressive NATO expansionthat is the root of the tensionswith that country.

So we now have a situationwhere public opinion againstTrident is the strongest it hasever been, at the moment whenthe final decision on

CND General Secretary Kate Hudson writes about what this election couldmean in practice for Trident replacement.

Farewell Trident?

‘Public opinionagainst Trident isthe strongest it

has ever been, atthe moment whenthe final decisionon replacement iscoming up fast’.